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CULTURE AND WAR 

BY 

SIMON NELSON PATTEN 

Author of The Nenv Basis of Ci'vilization, Product and 
Climax, Ad'vent Songs, etc. 






NEW YORK 

B. W. HUEBSCH 

1916 



Copyright, 1916, by 
B. W. HUEBSCH 






AUG 10 1916 



Printed in U. S. A. 



5)CI.A4380i5 



CULTURE AND WAR 

Recently an American girl obtained 
entrance to one of the best circles of a Ger- 
man city, and thought it her duty to help 
others of her race to gain admittance to this 
group. To her surprise these endeavors 
were resented. The general feeling was 
best expressed by a young Englishman, who 
said that although Germans in England 
would "make fools of themselves" to gain 
a knowledge of English, he would never 
make a fool of himself to understand Ger- 
man. Controlled by this sentiment, he 
would not put himself in a position where 
he seemed inferior to a foreign race, and 
preferred to go home without attaining the 
real object of his quest. This may be a 
lofty patriotism, but think of the cost in 
misunderstanding, opposition and war. A 
half of the best blood of the English may 
be sacrificed because they believe they 



2 CULTURE AND WAR 

^^make fools of themselves" if they attempt 
to understand what the German wants. My 
experience with American students return- 
ing recently from Germany shows them 
equally irrational. They have seen the 
outside of Germany, and have merely a 
dictionary knowledge of German thought. 
They can talk only of the rudeness of of- 
ficers, of the pettiness of bureaucrats, and 
of the debauchery of restaurant life. Is it 
any wonder that our papers are full of such 
stories, and that we are rapidly drifting 
into a state of opinion that makes war al- 
most a certainty. 

The element that has made the present 
world conflict inevitable is not the clash of 
arms, then, so much as the clash of ideals. 
At this moment America is deciding 
whether to follow the way of Europe, and 
become involved in similar struggle be- 
cause we are victims of the same prejudices, 
or to go the way of peace and receive the 
benefits of increased prosperity. Between 
these alternatives lies our only choice. 
The road on which we are already starting 
has war as its goal — war even more grue- 



CULTURE AND WAR 3 

some and extensive than that of to-day. 
While the way is yet open, is it not advis- 
able to test the other alternative and see if 
centuries of degradation and misery cannot 
be avoided? We must either bluff, blus- 
ter, prepare, and then fight; or else we must 
seek to understand our possible opponents 
and come into accord with them through 
mutual concession. This latter route, 
which seems so easy and simple, is a hard, 
perhaps an impossible road, for the Briton 
and American to travel. At bottom, we 
feel a contempt for other races and ap- 
proach them in an attitude of superiority 
that evokes opposition. Even conscien- 
tious attempts to interpret the thought of 
Germany frequently take the form of an 
apology couched in patronizing language 
that is most irritating to the people it is sup- 
posed to defend. Such articles do not help 
us to understand the modern German, or to 
appreciate his philosophy. Nor does the 
German manifesto signed by some ninety 
professors do other than confuse the issue. 
The real consideration is not how these pro- 
fessors write for foreign consumption, but 



4 CULTURE AND WAR 

how they talk to their neighbors and schol- 
ars. This is what we must find out if we 
would understand the German mind, and 
avoid a useless wrangle of words that masks 
an irreconcilable conflict. 

Let me say a word as to my fitness to in- 
terpret the thought of Germany. Forty 
years ago I began my university work there 
as a student, and by accident found myself 
in one of the most ardent of the new groups 
of moderns. At that time the ideas now 
universally held were only to be found in 
the university lecture and seminar. I saw 
Philosophy, Literature, Classicism, and 
other figures of the dead past driven out of 
the big lecture-rooms and put back of the 
staircase, while the apostles of the new Ger- 
manism got the front halls and the govern- 
ment plums. I was even more ardent than 
my fellows for the new culture, and before 
I left became the ^'Stammitglied" in a 
noted seminar. This phase of the modern 
spirit was a religion to me then, and for a 
long time after my return. Now, however, 
I feel that its force is spent, and that there 
is a beyond. But my early interest is in- 



CULTURE AND WAR 5 

dicative of my fitness to state in English 
what Germans really think and to present 
the cause towards which their devotion 
goes out. 

The prime difficulty that faces an in- 
terpreter is in the words selected to convey 
strange thoughts. If he uses the diction- 
ary equivalent of German words some ri- 
diculous doctrine is sure to appear. If he 
uses the English equivalents, the diction- 
ary student of German asks who said such 
a thing, and wins a sweeping victory be- 
cause there is no one from whom I can 
quote. German modernism has never 
been really transformed into a philosophy. 
It is merely a mode of thought in the mak- 
ing. But we demand a philosophy, and I 
am compelled to state what I think to be 
the interpretation, and must use formulae 
that I confess I have never seen in German. 
It is well, in any case, to contrast our 
thought by stating German ideas in terms 
that parallel English, and in so doing it is 
necessary to pick from the English lan- 
guage the words and phrases that best rep- 
resent the essence of German thinking. 



6 CULTURE AND WAR 

The easy entrance to German thought is 
not through Kant and Hegel, but by way 
of certain expressions that everyone uses in 
Germany. The most elementary of these 
is the contrast of Lebendig (living) and 
Starr (dead). ^^Lebendig" is a sweet mor- 
sel on every German's lips, and represents 
all that he cherishes. But when he says 
Starr that is the end of the matter; the dead 
must bury the dead. A fairly good transla- 
tion of this contrast would be dynamic and 
static. But the Lebendig is more than 
dynamic. It means also growth, concen- 
tration and power. The living grows, and 
this growth incorporates in itself other ele- 
ments. It thus gains in power and be- 
comes as it grows a super reality that in- 
corporates all else in it. The minor ele- 
ments are reabsorbed in the dominant unit, 
and live again. The living shows its life 
by flowering, while the dead disappears by 
disintegration. While any growing thing 
increases its dominance it is to be admired 
— yes, even worshiped — but if it ceases to 
grow or weakens, away with it; it is Starr. 

But the doing away with it does not in- 



CULTURE AND WAR 7 

volve any lack of historical appreciation. 
As an element in German history a person 
or a movement may be admired, which 
from a cultural view may be dead. An in- 
discriminate admiration of all the past cre- 
ates a cheap optimism, and yet a critical 
attitude also exists that separates the living 
elements of culture from the honored 
wrecks of the decaying past. My teachers 
advised me to study philosophy in such 
glowing terms that for a time I thought 
they really believed philosophy to be es- 
sential. But later I found they only feared 
that in my enthusiasm for history, and eco- 
nomics, I might neglect philosophy so much 
as to court failure in my final examination. 
Philosophy, in their opinion, was Starr, 
So was religion, Hegel, and other decaying 
disciplines and heroes. One of my profes- 
sors was interested in building a new 
church, and did much to arouse interest in 
the project. But when analyzed his utili- 
tarian purpose was threefold. He wanted 
a building of great architectural beauty; 
he desired a monument to commemorate 
the valor of the soldiers who fell in the late 



8 CULTURE AND WAR 

war; and finally he thought a church would 
keep servant girls from stealing spoons. 
The Church was dead to him for every 
higher end than teaching humility and self- 
denial to the serving class. 

The dead from this view is not to be 
judged as good or bad, nor as something on 
which ruthless hands are to be laid. There 
was no spirit of iconoclasm nor any emo- 
tional antagonism to the disappearing ele- 
ments of national life. Dead meant 
merely the outliving of usefulness, and so 
opposition to further evolution. That 
which does not accelerate thought and life 
becomes a menace to further growth. To 
illustrate, assume that a locomotive car- 
ries a train fifty miles an hour. We hitch 
on ten older engines in the desire to go 
faster still. There is now a great com- 
motion; the smoke and the flash of wheel 
appall; but with all the noise and the 
grandeur of the sight, the speed is less than 
before. The new engine has the essential 
points of its lumbering predecessors com- 
bined in new ways, and attains results that 
far surpass its antiquated rivals. So with 



CULTURE AND WAR 9 

a sailing boat that was unrivaled in its day; 
when the ocean greyhound appears, the 
once glorious sails are a hindrance and 
must be displaced. And so with all past 
deeds and ventures. They are petty and 
crude when compared with present deeds 
and thoughts as expressed by even ordinary 
men. The super pulse carries all along 
with a speed that old vehicles cannot at- 
tain. We hitch our Platos, our Kants, our 
Shakespeares, our Goethes, and our Emer- 
sons to our trains, with much glare, con- 
fusion and noise; but neither the intensity 
of life nor its moral tone is increased. To- 
day's motives and to-day's vitality fed on 
present events raise us higher than the level 
to which past heroes rose. The content of 
their thought is but a part of our intel- 
lectual atmosphere. It has more force as 
an element of the social pulse than as an 
isolated whole, grand though that whole 
may be. To study literature is often to 
lose touch with life and to get lost in the 
maze of imperfection that hangs about any 
great but dead work. Nothing is worth 
keeping that does not live in the soul of the 



10 CULTURE AND WAR 

people. Would we had a Kaiser to burn 
libraries once a century! 

In English thought the choice is not with 
the living but with the dead. Its phi- 
losophy is best expressed by Herbert Spen- 
cer who says Evolution is the integration 
of matter and the dissipation of motion. 
Matter is the symbol of the dead; motion 
that of living. Our philosophy therefore 
demands that life should continually run 
down; force is dissipated while dead mat- 
ter accumulates in great masses. A favor- 
ite picture is the final disappearance of 
man, the ruin of civilization, and the cool- 
ing off of the sun. This with us is not pes- 
simism, or at least we think it is not be- 
cause we premise another world where the 
failure of this life gets its proper reward. 
I do not care to question this philosophy, 
but merely to contrast it with the German. 
There the dead is dissolving, disappearing, 
and disintegrating, while life is concen- 
trating, growing, evolving, and hence dom- 
inating. Change, Spencer tells us, is the 
diffusion of motion, and hence the destruc- 
tion of life, at least the higher forms of 



CULTURE AND WAR ii 

life. The German would say that change 
means the concentration and the elevation 
of the living, and the acceleration of their 
activity. 

Such is the essence of the new German 
philosophy. There is a more abstract way 
of entering the same field that may help 
some readers. Reality is a flow, or better 
stated, a pulse. We do not see dead matter 
as Spencer assumes, but the pulse in which 
we for the moment are incorporated. This 
pulse has antecedents and consequents 
which we get at by reasoning. When we 
judge the pulse by what is to follow we 
have a philosophy of ends out of which our 
morality grows. The good is that which 
harmonizes with some end. But ends can 
be assumed worthy only as to-morrow is 
like to-day and yesterday. A philosophy 
of ends thus assumes a changeless, static 
world; and hence a dead world, for life, 
growth and change are synonymous terms. 
A live world can have no philosophy of 
ends. Life merely grows, continuously, 
and its ultimate measure is that it grows. 
But growth also means concentration and 



12 CULTURE AND WAR 

acceleration; and hence a super reality 
must all the while be emerging that ab- 
sorbs every minor reality into itself, caus- 
ing everything to relive and blossom in its 
new subordination. The lower self thus 
attains its maximum advantage, not by set- 
ting up ends for individual action and 
moral rules for their attainment, but by ab- 
sorption in the super reality, and partici- 
pation in its growth. 

This bit of philosophizing is only pre- 
liminary to the final question : Where and 
what is this super reality, this permanence, 
this acceleration, this unification of force 
and vitality? There is but one answer — 
Germany and ^'Kultur." We say the Ger- 
man worships the State. He does not — 
he worships Germany. The State is but a 
physical expression of the great super real- 
ity of which it is the symbol. To bring out 
this thought and thus connect Germany 
with super reality is the work of the mod- 
ern German historian. He starts from the 
crude historical beginnings of the German 
race, and shows how it has assimilated and 
incorporated all the elements of earlier 



CULTURE AND WAR 13 

civilization and given them permanence. 
Everything thus flows into Germany and 
becomes a part of "Kultur." The State 
has thus become the physical representa- 
tive of the great super reality before whose 
irresistible power all else must crumble and 
fade into nothingness. Foreigners miss the 
point of this stimulating doctrine by count- 
ing noses to see which nation has the larger 
number of great men. But it is not credit 
for the origin of new ideas on which the 
German advocate rests his case. Germany 
is the great assimilator of ideas, which re- 
main isolated entities until they find their 
place in German culture. All is grist to 
the German mill and serves for the exalta- 
tion of Germany to a higher plane. 

Thus far I have tried to impress but a 
single point in German thought involving 
a marked contrast to English philosophy. 
Instead of energy gradually dissipating it- 
self, leaving a huge concentrated mass of 
dead matter, it is energy that grows, con- 
centrates and surmounts, leaving the dead 
institutions, traditions or philosophies to 
be dispersed and subordinated. There is 



14 CULTURE AND WAR 

then a higher unity becoming apparent, 
which shows itself as cooperative action. 
This pulse, which sweeps all along in spite 
of themselves, finds expression in the State, 
whose superiority is even now recognized; 
and when still higher forms of concentra- 
tion appear this institution will be the one 
current into which all life flows. 

This is the new political philosophy 
whose creeds and dogmas run counter to 
our accepted notions. I have no desire to 
defend this view of life, but rather to ex- 
plain what is gained by its acceptance, and 
point out how its seeming evils and defects 
are guarded against. It should be recog- 
nized that this super pulse has no con- 
sciousness, and hence no feeling and no 
morality. State decisions are good or evil, 
but never right or wrong. The agent of 
the State may do wrong, and hence be sub- 
ject to punishment. But of the act of the 
State there is but one valid judgment: 
Did it produce adjustment and hence in- 
crease the vitality and concentration 
needed for growth? Then it is good. 
Were the opposite true the evil must be 



CULTURE AND WAR 15 

righted by a reversal of the earlier de- 
fective decision. Policies become law 
through their success. No other judgment 
is valid. 

But this viewpoint will shock the adher- 
ents of ancestral creeds even less, perhaps, 
than that which I am about to make. All 
ideals and end philosophies must be dis- 
carded as representing static concepts that 
mar the evolution of the super soul. If an 
individual accepts an ideal and works for 
its realization, it is good only so long as he 
and the national super reality of which he 
is a manifestation do not change. Any 
evolution of himself or of the communal 
spirit makes the old ideal or end bad, and 
thus forces him either to abandon it or rec- 
ognize it as an obstacle that must be dis- 
placed as society advances. The idealist 
and the end philosopher are always behind 
the age worshiping the has-been or might- 
be instead of the becoming. The move- 
ment of the national pulse should be the 
guide for individual action, and not per- 
sonal judgments, aims, or emotions. We 
move ; we go ; we grow ; that we move, go 



1 6 CULTURE AND WAR 

and grow is the test of superiority, and not 
the end towards which we are moving. 

This reversal of accustomed views seems 
to leave us without a guide, with no stabil- 
ity or animating force. But the change 
brings consolations as well as dangers. 
The new viewpoint is difficult to gain, yet 
it may be claimed that by this other route 
all of the old results are attained and a rich 
surplus acquired in addition. Let me il- 
lustrate: Suppose the aim is to raise the 
religious life of the community. A mis- 
sionary might do this by setting up definite 
ends and ideals towards which each indi- 
vidual should strive. But if the world is 
dynamic each year would increase the lack 
of adjustment between the desired end and 
the evolving national pulse; each year 
would see more dissipation of energy due to 
this maladjustment until death and dissolu- 
tion result. The ideal may seem glorious 
to live for, but in the end we and it must die. 
Again we have the old story of the dissipa- 
tion of energy and the concentration of 
matter, for what is an ideal or end out of 
harmony with vital processes but a dead 



CULTURE AND WAR 17 

incumbrance that lowers and devitalizes? 
Contrast this attitude with that of a man 
who would rid the world of some disease. 
If smallpox or fever is eliminated we 
merely have more life. The healthy per- 
son lives more abundantly; yet nothing is 
done to fix the end toward which he moves 
or the ideals that inspire him. Everyone 
moves on more rapidly, more smoothly, and 
more in harmony with the output of others' 
energy. The individual is happy and the 
State thrives. What more can be asked? 
There is a single thought behind these 
examples. The present is a pulse of which 
there are antecedents and consequents. 
Which of these is the better object of study, 
and which gives the firmer basis of judg- 
ment as to social good? If we modify the 
antecedent the effect is directly measurable 
in the vitality and growth of the super 
pulse of which we are a part. The em- 
phasis of antecedents, then, shows a growth 
of social as opposed to personal ends, while 
a consideration of ends subordinates the 
social and vital to the personal. In a 
crude primitive society the dominance of 



i8 CULTURE AND WAR 

the personal over the vital may be justi- 
fied, but in each epoch of advance the ante- 
cedent of action becomes clearer and more 
measurable, w^hile the attainment of per- 
sonal ends becomes a useless dissipation of 
energy. Surely, then, in our advanced 
state we are justified in a radical break with 
old concepts, that we may have life and 
have it more abundantly. 

Here are two philosophies. The one 
judges conduct by its antecedents and 
causes; the other by the ideals or ends to 
be attained. To study ends is an old voca- 
tion, and out of it has come our fixed, dog- 
matic attitudes, and cramping concepts of 
art and life. In the old thought we shoot 
at marks even if we know they are out of 
range. But all science relates to ante- 
cedents and causes. The events of yester- 
day and the pulse of to-day are under our 
observation; from our knowledge of them 
comes our advance to new levels of intelli- 
gence and activity. And what are these 
guiding principles of action based solely on 
past and present events and with no slip- 
pery elements of an unsurveyed future? 



CULTURE AND WAR 19 

A German would reply in three words — 
Dienst, Ordnung, and Kraft. The best 
translation of these terms which I can sug- 
gest would be service, conformity and 
growth. We miss the vital point in the 
German view when we start with Kraft 
and call it force. Kraft is really the final 
stage of evolution ; it is a mark of superior- 
ity only as the preceding stages have been 
faced and surmounted. The first and pri- 
mary word in the new German philosophy 
is Dienst, not Kraft, Here the German 
claims a superiority over the English view 
of life. The first question of an English- 
man is, "What am I to get out of it?" 
This judgment is not to be interpreted in a 
bad sense, but merely shows that he has a 
measured attitude, summing up the per- 
sonal advantages and disadvantages of his 
acts before decision is made. The Ger- 
man, however, holds that the sacrifice of 
self-interest to the higher social life is the 
first duty of a man, and that no personal 
motive should weigh in the scale against it. 
Indeed, to talk of a super man is not Ger- 
man; the author of this phrase did not 



20 CULTURE AND WAR 

catch the true spirit of his countrymen. 
Service, and not domination is their first 
principle; and this is made a vital part of 
each child's education. The German 
boy learns to serve before he learns to 
think. His freedom comes only with ma- 
turity, not with learning how to walk. 
Long years of implicit obedience, quick re- 
sponse to command, the subordination of 
self, respect for authority — all this disci- 
pline and more is imposed on a child; 
through it his character is made. We are 
likely to overlook this emphasis of service 
and think obedience is forced on subjects 
by State authority; but the present war, if 
nothing else, should show the falsity of this 
superficial view. Service is eager, genu- 
ine, and heartfelt. The spirit of calcula- 
tion and self-aggrandizement is absent 
when the higher interests of Germany are 
endangered, or when the cultural life of 
the people is threatened. The goal of the 
German may be wrong, but his motive is 
genuine and unselfish. 

The second basis of German culture lies 
in what they call Ordnung, This means 



CULTURE AND WAR ar 

stability of institutions if we think of re- 
sults, but there is more than mere stability 
involved. It includes all the arrange- 
ments and methods by which the civil life 
expresses itself in an orderly way. It will 
not do to translate Ordnung by our phrase 
"law and order," because with us this 
merely means the submission to recognized 
authority. The law may be wrong and the 
submission may be servile, as when a court 
interferes to break up a strike. Such in- 
vasion of public rights we call "law and 
order" and tamely submit to the evils it im- 
poses. But Ordnung with the Germans 
involves a much higher thought. It means 
the kind of a rule that increases adjust- 
ment, the regulation that promotes pros- 
perity. It implies not merely a submission 
to State regulation, but covers every area 
of life, and thus gives to the service of the 
individual the higher meaning that the 
new culture demands. Ordnung is thus 
not "law and order," but an arrangement 
of life and activity by which our inner 
emotions correspond to our outer condi- 
tions, giving rise to a harmonious current 



22 CULTURE AND WAR 

of progress and growth. If these two con- 
cepts — Dienst and Ordnung — are mastered, 
the meaning of Kraft becomes intelligible. 
Kraft is the measure of Dienst and Ord- 
nung, Public service and complete ad- 
justment are to be judged, not by some 
superimposed end or ideal that cramps as 
approach is made, but by the acceleration 
and effectiveness of the national pulse in 
putting aside the remaining obstacles to 
progress. The national pulse must grow, 
surpass, and conquer; or it must stagnate 
and finally dissolve into its elements. Suc- 
cess and decay are the only measures of na- 
tional efficiency. The pulse that domi- 
nates and absorbs other pulses becomes the 
super-pulse; its Ordnung alone is worthy 
of admiration, and its service alone be- 
comes a permanent source of satisfaction. 
The duty of the individual is the duty of 
accelerating and augmenting the national 
pulse, and not of fixing its goal. This is 
the only rule of personal conduct, the only 
morality if action is to be judged by its 
antecedents, and not by its results. Shall 
we move towards God and be content that 



CULTURE AND WAR 23 

God approves, or must we confine our ef- 
forts to some goal that we can see, appreci- 
ate, and finally reach? Is the pleasure of 
doing and growing greater than that of 
reaching ends? Did God work six days on 
some definite plan that could be perfectly 
realized, or was there more to do on the 
seventh day than on the first because His 
concept had grown so rapidly that the uni- 
verse was less complete than before? 
These are the problems that separate from 
each other two concepts of life. As the 
view clears we leave the confusion of the 
past and rise to the new level. Good and 
evil become clearly recognized only as the 
scales fall from the eyes and we enter a 
world with a new dimension. Such is the 
difference between the old and the new 
civilization, and the extent of the change 
involved in passing from the one to the 
other. 

We can avoid the use of Kraft with its 
double meaning by stating the three Ger- 
man ultimates as service, conformity and 
achievement. Service is effective only by 
conforming to natural law, and its success 



24 CULTURE AND WAR 

measured in present product is achieve- 
ment. We often hear our culture con- 
trasted with theirs in the number of great 
men each civilization has produced. In 
this list are put only the great discoverers of 
truth. This method of judging might be 
accepted by a few of the older generation of 
Germans who are still proud of Kant, He- 
gel, and Goethe; but I feel sure the newer 
and at present dominant thought would re- 
fuse to accept the test. German thought 
has changed its emphasis from discovery to 
achievement. He who turns the force of 
nature into useful channels gets the praise 
and holds positions denied the mere 
scholar. Service and conformity thus pro- 
duce immediate results; the life of the 
State is broadened and the level of culture 
heightened by each new application of sci- 
ence to everyday affairs. The national 
pulse gains impetus by each conquest, and 
the absorption of the one in the all becomes 
more apparent. Happy is he who so lives 
that the whole nation profits by his deeds. 
As contrasted with this subordination of 
the person in the State through service, 



CULTURE AND WAR 25 

conformity and achievement the English 
ideal is that of self-interest and personal 
salvation. We contrast not objective good 
and evil, but subjective right and wrong. 
Right is thus a personal emotion, not 
an objective conformity to natural law. 
From interest and right we go to freedom, 
and measure our advance not by achieve- 
ment, but by our power to isolate ourselves 
from the social pulse, and to resist the on- 
flow that submerges the individual under 
the current of conformity. Our heaven is 
a hiding-place for saved individuals, not 
the unification of the dominant currents of 
the universe. We are moral in the sense 
of conformity to custom and tradition; 
Germans are moral in the sense of conform- 
ity to natural law. They live in the pres- 
ent; we live in the past. This ancient goal, 
fixed and institutionalized has nothing in it 
that did not lie in an initial golden age. 
We drop back and recover but do not go 
ahead. The long, weary tramp of the ages 
only leads to what our forefathers had. 
All this, pretty as a picture, is static, dead, 
hopeless, when compared with a vital evo- 



26 CULTURE AND WAR 

lution that leads to the great unknown and 
burns its past to get more fuel for present 
progress. To-morrow is not yesterday re- 
lived, but a ceaseless flow drawing all life 
together, yielding joy through the increase 
of its speed. If the planets move but never 
arrive, why should not life also have its 
measure in growth and acceleration? 

Thus far we have had to do with the bet- 
ter side of German development and with 
the elements in German culture that stand 
in contrast to our ideas. As a philosophy 
it is a vital, economic interpretation of so- 
ciety to be contrasted with materialism, 
mechanism, and finalism. Force is pic- 
tured in it as growth, economy, and organ- 
ization instead of a concept of repellent 
units that dissipate while matter aggre- 
gates. I am charmed by this philosophy, 
especially when it is expounded by an elo- 
quent professor. Then, in turn, I am bit- 
terly disappointed to see what a small 
product comes from the mill. The initial 
chapters of such a book stir the soul, but 
when you read on the discussion drifts 
from some world vision to the settlement 



CULTURE AND WAR 27 

of some insignificant German problem. A 
really world view the new German has not 
yet attained. He either slips back to the 
old philosophical attitude; or one is disap- 
pointed to find that his only interest seems 
to be in current questions. All this is in- 
telligible when one reflects that German 
thought is not a unified whole, but merely 
a cyclonic upheaval, the force of which is 
not yet spent. The best parallel is the 
early stages of the French Revolution, 
when new ideas were blended with old tra- 
ditions in a most fantastic manner. Such is 
the course of all revolutions. A philos- 
ophy half understood and poorly applied; 
a goal partly seen and wrongly interpreted; 
an enthusiasm eagerly spent on great and 
small objects alike; an intense nationalism 
so blind that it thinks itself to be a world 
vision — these are blended in all radical 
movements, and are the source at once of 
their power, their extravagance, and their 
failure to create immediate transforma- 
tions. 

Were these changes in thought merely 
German we might seek to crush them out as 



28 CULTURE AND WAR 

the aristocrat sought to crush the French 
Revolution; but the forces that make for 
the new German culture are world-wide, 
and their ultimate success can be as little 
hindered as could the French Revolution. 
We save our energy, vitality, and our civi- 
lization not by opposing change, but by 
understanding its antecedents and by re- 
ducing the shock of the transition to a new 
status. The world must accept German 
culture, just as it was forced to become 
democratic. But it must do more than 
that, for this culture is not a goal, but 
merely a stage. Much that Germany re- 
jects in its radical upheaval must be rein- 
corporated in the super-culture. Ger- 
man thought is thus the initial stage of a 
new evolution of thought and life. We 
are static; they are dynamic. Where they 
have gone on and hence differ from us, 
they are in the right. Where they are 
wrong is where they still hold identical 
views with those prevailing in the Anglo- 
American world. We do not see this be- 
cause we consciously misinterpret their 
philosophy so as to give a basis for our ha- 



CULTURE AND WAR 29 

tred of coming change as personified in na- 
tional differences. 

These facts can be brought out only by 
analyzing the German defense of culture 
and nationalism. The essential element of 
a culture philosophy is the growing super- 
pulse which in its victory absorbs and con- 
serves everything else. In contrast to this, 
nationalism involves a struggle, a defeat, 
and annihilation of the weaker unit. It is 
the philosophy of hate, of opposition, and 
of material triumph. We have the same 
thought in the doctrine of biologic strug- 
gle, which our leading thinkers accept with 
the eagerness of a German patriot. We 
kill Indians as ruthlessly as they kill Bel- 
gians, and justify ourselves on the same 
grounds. The good plant drives out the 
bad plant; the good man advances by the 
elimination of his weaker adversary. The 
German patriot says we advance through 
war; his English compeer holds that ad- 
vance is through struggle. The difference 
in these two attitudes is slight. If prog- 
ress is a struggle, the good advancing only 
through the elimination of the weak, war 



30 CULTURE AND WAR 

is a blessing, and so is disease, hardship and 
grinding poverty. The only question is 
whether it is more humane to kill people 
outright by bullets and shrapnel, or to^ 
starve them by low wages and bad housing. 
I have wandered from my theme to make 
clear the similarity of German and English 
views in the field where both nations, being 
static, permit the cruel grind of circum- 
stance to determine survival. In express- 
ing this static war philosophy two words 
are used by the German — Entartung (de- 
generation) and Krieg (struggle). War, 
we are told by a unison of voices that makes 
it seem national, is a purging process by 
which the weak and defective, losing 
ground, disappear. The small nations 
and the peaceful nations, lacking vigor, 
are static or degenerating. To reincorpo- 
rate them into a vigorous, growing nation is 
thus a blessing, even if some hardship en- 
sues. The greater vitality due to this 
blending and unifying process soon recoups 
the loss and brings additional gains in the 
form of a higher culture. A small culture 
is impossible; a small state is therefore a 



CULTURE AND WAR 31 

degenerating bane, and not the goal of 
progress, as the English assume. Culture 
is Germany; it can rise to new levels only 
as Germany, in which it is embodied, ex- 
pands and dominates. Thus a gospel that 
starts with culture as its ideal is soon trans- 
formed into an intense nationalism making 
war an instrument of advance. 

This is one side of German philosophy. 
Krieg, or struggle, as we name it, is the sole 
cause of progress, brought by the elimina- 
tion of the unfit that war pressure creates. 
The popular contrast to this is Entartung, 
or, as we would say, degeneration. Strug- 
gle means progress, while the lack of strug- 
gle (peace) is the source of retrogression 
and decay. A long peace, says a book at 
my elbow, is the worst of all evils. But 
we do not need to go to German literature 
to find staunch advocates of this view. It 
is what we called the biological theory of 
progress if taught in its new form, and the 
basis of history if the doctrine is stated as 
our fathers saw it. Every nation, the his- 
torian tells us, has its period of youth and 
decay. The seeds of decay lie in the es- 



32 CULTURE AND WAR 

sence of national life, and sooner or later 
the rotting process exerts its influence and 
brings its dire results. The moralist and 
the religious teacher are sure that all prog- 
ress is vanity, and that each uplift is fol- 
lowed by decay, wreck, and ruin. Even 
the economist thinks prosperity softens a 
race and makes it unfit for competition 
with neighboring races. ^Three genera- 
tions from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves" is a 
popular adage, showing the hold the tradi- 
tional view has on the public mind. 

To these older beliefs the new science 
has added several more, and so revives a 
doctrine that might otherwise have fallen 
into decay. It is assumed that the unfit 
breed more rapidly than the fit, and tend to 
dominate. Race suicide is another la- 
mented evil. Many statistics are given to 
show that the intelligent class are actually 
dying out. To these may be added the de- 
generate effects of extravagance, vice, and 
dissipation. The growth of income, in- 
stead of steadying its recipients and arous- 
ing more motives for work, is assumed to 
make men careless, indifferent, and ineffi- 



CULTURE AND WAR 33 

cient. There may be added the long ti- 
rades against the modern woman, her inde- 
pendence, and her self-assertion. She re- 
fuses to fulfill the duties of motherhood 
when life is made pleasant and easy by the 
increase of income. 

This is a meager list of the woes that the 
historian, moralist, and social philosopher 
find to follow the increase of prosperity, 
good living and high culture. I do not 
wish to argue, but merely to point out that 
if the premises of this philosophy are cor- 
rect, the German is not so far out of the way 
when he would displace all this degenera- 
tion by frequent war. So long as our 
thinkers can find no ^'moral equivalent for 
war" why should we object to a military 
system that accentuates national differ- 
ence, and thus by its frequent wars brings 
a moral uplift to each race? If half that 
has been said is true of the moral uplift 
taking place in England, France, and Rus- 
sia since the beginning of the present war, 
Germany should be thanked for bringing 
on so great an awakening. To say the 
least, our philosophy in this respect is not 



34 CULTURE AND WAR 

superior or different from that of the Ger- 
man on these points. We, however, are 
consistent because our whole philosophy is 
based on the concept of struggle. If hard- 
ship, subordination, and self-denial form 
the only road to moral integrity, while 
peace, love and culture lead to stagnation 
and decay, America must degrade her 
workers to gain purity of soul. The Ger- 
man has partly broken with dead material- 
ism of this sort, and it is only where he has 
remained static that his concepts resemble 
ours. Yet struggle and degeneration are 
complementary thoughts, and there is no 
escape from their evils without a complete 
transformation of our ancestral philosophy. 
German thought is thus a composite of 
two antagonistic elements. Its cultural 
philosophy is new and has a dynamic basis. 
Were Germany's progress determined by 
this philosophy it would have a peaceful 
triumph and be a world blessing. But the 
philosophy of conflict with its battle-cries 
of war and degeneration holds a coordinate 
place, causing many queer blendings of the 
old and the new. Thus the elements of our 



CULTURE AND WAR 35 

own philosophy that Germany has not yet 
rejected make most of the present difficulty. 
Germany as culture, and Germany as a 
race, seem to the German people to be one 
concept, and will in their minds remain one 
concept so long as the physical Germany is 
repressed by foreign antagonism. The 
Germans think themselves to be on the 
defensive in this and previous wars be- 
cause of their past suffering from inva- 
sion, and because present Germany is less 
than historic Germany. Continued re- 
straints or future defeats will strengthen 
the racial spirit at the expense of culture, 
while an expansion of Germany beyond its 
racial limits is sure to repress race feeling 
and increase the influence of culture. The 
larger Germany must come to an under- 
standing with the Slavs, Poles, and other 
races, and through this understanding the 
opposition of race interests will gradually 
disappear. It can be said that two-fifths 
of the German people are in thought an- 
tagonistic to the military policy and its 
emphasis on war as a purging process. 
Expanding Germany so that the now dom- 



36 CULTURE AND WAR 

inant three-fifths become only two-fifths in 
the larger State would cause the cultural 
elements to dominate, and as a result a last- 
ing peace would be attained. Where 
States are small and formed on racial lines 
the opposition of interest and feelings is 
greatest. Here the philosophy of strug- 
gle has its greatest hold and will produce 
its direst effect in war. Economic and 
cultural interests are, however, broader 
than racial groups into which the world is 
divided. Where they dominate States 
grow in size and race feeling is elimi- 
nated. There is perhaps room for a half 
dozen independent, self-sufficient States in 
the world; but not for the many scores of 
small States which the persistence of na- 
tional boundaries on racial lines would up- 
hold. 

What has thus far been said shows the 
causes of present controversies and the 
stakes of the conflict. The essential point 
is this: The world has entered a new 
stage in its social evolution. All nations 
feel the new world-pulse, but some more 
than others. This localizes the movement, 



CULTURE AND WAR 37 

putting the radicals in control in some 
countries, the conservatives in others. Is- 
sues thus get a national coloring v^hile the 
conflict becomes intense over problems not 
pertinent to the real issue. Every great 
advance of this kind has emerged as a race 
movement, and in its early stages v^as a 
patriotic expression of national feeling. 
The most notable instances are Hebrew re- 
ligion, Grecian thought, and French de- 
mocracy. In each case the national phases 
of the new movement dominated and col- 
ored the viewpoint. Only slowly were the 
general aspects developed from the local. 
When through the elimination of the na- 
tional elements people learn to state the 
new thought as a general principle, the new 
acquires a world-wide vogue. Religion is 
not Hebrew; the intellect is no longer 
Grecian; democracy is no longer associated 
with the French Revolution. So the time 
will come when we can appreciate the new 
culture without associating it with Ger- 
many. If thought can be separated from 
tradition, the Church from the State, and 
democracy from mob rule, culture and war 



38 CULTURE AND WAR 

may be separated, bringing as great a revo- 
lution as that which followed any of the 
earlier epochs. 

It is one thing, however, to state the 
problem, and quite another to show how 
the separation may be effected. We cling 
to old views and cherish ancestral tradi- 
tion with a vigor and partisanship that 
thwarts earnest endeavors to reconstruct 
national views along sane lines. The dif- 
ficulty of the transition is much increased 
by the way in which the problem is faced. 
We demand a cure-all for war — some 
simple panacea to which no objection can 
be made. To this but one reply can be 
given. There is no such remedy. The 
change is a change of attitude that affects 
all social and vital relations, some more, 
some less fundamentally; but with the re- 
sult that no evil is completely cured, but 
that many, if not all of them, have their 
virulence diminished. What evil has 
Grecian culture, Hebrew religion, or the 
French Revolution cured? None, we 
would have to reply, though many ills have 
been reduced. So will it be when culture 



CULTURE AND WAR 39 

dominates over struggle instead of compro- 
mising with it, as is the case at present. 
This will mean that new outlets of energy 
are found; that the interests of individuals 
will conflict less than before; or, better 
stated, the pressure that degenerates, de- 
bases and antagonizes will lose much of its 
present power. 

A good way to illustrate this thought is 
to state the contrast, as many recent writers 
have put it. What they ask is the moral 
equivalent of wars. They seek a new mo- 
rality that will have the effectiveness of the 
old without the brutal struggles war im- 
poses. So they spend their time contriving 
schemes that will '^harden" people as war 
has done, but produce the same flow of en- 
ergy and the same disposition on the part 
of the individual to ''sacrifice" his inter- 
ests for some assumed good. Why, it is 
asked, should we not have a general con- 
scription of both young men and women, 
employing them to build roads, dig ditches, 
scrub floors, wash dishes, and perform other 
disagreeable tasks that they might gain the 
humility of person and the moral exalta- 



40 CULTURE AND WAR 

tion that war is assumed to give? The 
reply is that the way out from war is not 
moral restraint, but economic liberation. 
We do not want to dig ditches and scrub 
floors, but to get rid of disagreeable tasks. 
The new culture must oppose economic 
hardships as earnestly as it opposes war, 
and for the same reason. We get culture 
as we intensify our wants and reduce the 
amount of disagreeable toil. We gain as 
the State ceases to impose burdens; we rise 
as the Church, ceasing to be a mere consola- 
tion, becomes the medium for genial enjoy- 
ment and inspiration. Hardship, toil, and 
exploitation are the opposite to all this, and 
any morality that makes them appear to be 
blessings must go with the disappearance 
of war and its train of evils. We want not 
a restraining morality, but activity; not 
sacrifice, but joy; not toil, but harvest. 
These are the essence of culture, and these 
are the motives putting society on an eco- 
nomic instead of a moral basis. 

One can claim all this unreservedly and 
yet admit that many evils that now exist 
will not be removed; yea, some of them 



CULTURE AND WAR 41 

may even be increased. We want a mo- 
rality and a state, but they must work in a 
new direction, gain their results by new 
methods. What we want them to do we 
cannot clearly state, because we cannot 
foresee the changes that culture will bring, 
and how old evils will revitalize them- 
selves under the new conditions. But 
these facts should not make us hesitate 
about accepting the new culture and work- 
ing enthusiastically for its advance. 
Many of the evils that prophets predicted 
about democracy have proved true — some 
persist in exaggerated forms. But this 
fact has not stood in the way of democratic 
advance, nor are the losses so great as to 
counterbalance the good democracy has 
brought. So with culture; it must be seen 
to be appreciated and judged. Its evils 
doubtless will be many, but how to curb 
them we can only know when the new cul- 
ture dominates the popular thought. A 
full stomach brings many diseases, but few 
would be willing to accept starvation as a 
cure. First fill the stomach and then learn 
how to control the appetite. So we learn 



42 CULTURE AND WAR! 

to appreciate, to love, to long for nature, to 
feel the thrill of beauty, and then learn the 
self-control which the new situation de- 
mands. ^'SufBcient to the day is the evil 
thereof." If we seek and gain the good of 
the world, the accompanying evils can in 
some way be overcome. 

The question, ''Where can we look for 
a moral equivalent of war?" can be an- 
swered only by dividing the problem into 
two parts. We need a new man and a new 
viron. The new man cannot fit the old 
viron, nor can we determine what the qual- 
ities of the new man should be by picturing 
him against a background of present con- 
ditions. We must get the new viron first, 
and then energize and educate men so that 
they will respond to their new situation. 
The important point to remember is that 
we already know what this new viron 
should afford and how it may be acquired. 
The objective side of the new world is al- 
ready discernible, as are the means of its 
attainment. The evil of the old viron may 
be expressed in one word — poverty. We 
get the key to its elimination when we real- 



CULTURE AND WAR 43 

ize that poverty is not due to the lack of 
inherited talent, but to bad external condi- 
tions. The theory that hardship produces 
character seems like satire when we realize 
that poverty is the most brutal and wide- 
spread hardship, and that its victims are al- 
ways those who have the least character. 
A certain minimum of income, much 
larger than the day-laborer now receives, is 
a necessary prerequisite to character-build- 
ing; no nation can give character to its 
people till the load of poverty is taken from 
their shoulders. Fortunately the increase 
of productive power permits the attain- 
ment of this minimum. A new social level 
is now possible upon which a society may 
be built without the woe that blocked ear- 
lier progress. Do not, however, under- 
stand me to say that while the lack of in- 
come prevents character, the pressure of 
income will insure character. Income is 
merely a condition to the appearance of 
character, not its cause or source. The ob- 
jective is merely the soil in which the spir- 
itual may grow. 
We get much nearer the source of char- 



44 CULTURE AND WAR 

acter when we view it as an index of health 
rather than of income. Only as income 
blossoms in health can we measure its bene- 
fits. Only as it undermines health by its 
dissipations can we measure its evils. In- 
come separates society into two parts — 
the health seekers and the pleasure seekers. 
The one growing in character survives ; the 
other degenerates and disappears. The in- 
crease of income thus gives us a type of 
elimination that works as rigorously as 
war, without its crudeness and brutality. 
Health culture is thus the prime form of 
culture, and only as its conditions become 
clear can an effective elimination take 
place that will check dissipation and vice. 
Health motives are far the most effective; 
they have the advantage that they enforce 
themselves. 

Each decade gives a clearer presentation 
of health needs and a better appreciation 
of advantages. More knowledge is doubt- 
less coming, but even if no more than ex- 
ists at present were attainable we have 
only to wait its general diffusion to 
attain a standard of vigor, economy, and 



CULTURE AND WAR 45 

temperance that contrasts sharply the 
low level of the past with the brighter fu- 
ture ahead. Few realize the enormous 
change in attitude that will result because 
they fail to see that the lack of character 
now so manifest is largely the result of the 
shortness of human life and the prevalence 
of disease. An average life of less than 
thirty years has already been lengthened by 
a half. We may soon hope for a life of 
sixty years for those who reach the mar- 
riageable age. This will mean that chil- 
dren will arrive at maturity before parents 
lose their productive power. There will 
then be no slump in family standards, 
which results from the early disability of 
parents and the necessary exposure of chil- 
dren to the evils of self-support. Family 
life will thus be a sustaining force that will 
elevate each generation above its predeces- 
sor. From income we move to health, and 
from health to a purer family life. Thus 
will the attractive forces of culture work 
out a salvation without struggle or hard- 
ship of any sort. A self-sustaining upward 
current is created that carries with it 



46 CULTURE AND WAR 

all who have health, income and enter- 
prise. 

To these motives must be added another 
force well-grounded in human nature, 
which can be relied on to make effective 
the trend towards social regeneration. 
Adam Smith was right in claiming for 
sympathy as fundamental a place as that 
given to self-interest. Sympathy now 
shows its influence in every decision the 
group makes; and if not morality itself, as 
Adam Smith claimed, it is at least the basis 
on which morality rests. As an element in 
evolution its influence is mainly seen in the 
problems of rehabilitation that must be 
faced in any epoch of social advance. 
Were survival determined by struggle 
alone, the weak would be wiped out in a 
brutal fashion. Unfortunately the weak 
in this brute struggle are the great mass of 
mankind. The dominant tenth have more 
power in struggle than the remaining nine- 
tenths. Misery, poverty, and exploita- 
tion are necessary results through which 
happiness and culture remain the posses- 
sion of the favored few. Yet in heredity 



CULTURE AND WAR 47 

this depressed mass have the same mental 
and physical qualities as their masters. 
The determining factor of struggle is not 
that of character, but of external advan- 
tage, either in material prosperity or in 
education. 

In opposition to these tendencies human 
sympathy softens the hardships of the un- 
fortunate, and increases the relative num- 
ber of those gaining enough mastery over 
nature to participate in the national cul- 
ture. With the growth of economic wel- 
fare more effort is expended on endeavors 
to rehabilitate the weak, and the measure 
of their success is larger. Instead of the 
tenth that brute struggle would put at the 
top, we have perhaps forty per cent, of the 
population sufficiently nourished and pro- 
tected to participate in the social advance 
of the nation. This change is the measure 
of human sympathy as an upbuilding force. 
If such an advance has been made under 
the bad social conditions of the past, we 
may hope that the time is not far distant 
when a substantial majority of the people 
will feel the force of the new impulse that 



48 CULTURE AND WAR 

culture evokes. When this happens the 
political structure on which society rests 
will be radically altered. Steady, ration- 
alized progress will displace the spasmodic 
efforts of advance we now make. New 
problems of rehabilitation can then be 
faced with the assurance that at least nine- 
tenths of the population may be so freed 
from the evils of vice and poverty that 
motives of self-improvement dominate. 
Should this happen, the remaining tenth, 
the really defective, can be removed from 
society to be tenderly cared for, and cease 
to be a menace to social advance. 

Human nature is not bad, but good. Its 
dominant motives are the result of a long 
period of favorable evolution, and show 
their vigor when external conditions per- 
mit. The fundamental wrongs lie not in 
human nature, but in the defective organ- 
ization of society. It is a new society, not 
a new heredity, that we need — new social 
bonds, and not new personal traits. Self- 
interest, the yearning for life and sym- 
pathy, are thus the integrating forces on 
which the initial uplift of society depends. 



CULTURE AND WAR 49 

It would be a mistake, however, to assume 
that they are all of human nature. There 
are disintegrating as well as integrating 
forces. Of these the more prominent are 
passion, greed, and fear. Hate is not a 
trait in human nature, but fear may readily 
become hate where social groups contend 
fiercely for the mastery. Hate is fear plus 
struggle; and its disintegrating force is ap- 
parent in all tribal organizations that come 
to us from the primitive world. It is an 
acquired attitude and would disappear 
were the social units of the world so organ- 
ized that struggle ceases. Greed also is 
not a personal trait, but is the outcome of 
a defective social organization permitting 
wealth and want to exist side by side. 
Greed flowers in an aristocracy and in 
regions under autocratic control. In a 
democracy its force is weakened, and its 
power would be broken if a state of com- 
fort were attained by all. Sex passion is 
likewise disintegrating in a society where 
personal indulgence gives the motive for 
struggle and aggression. Where one sex 
is the prey and the other the master, passion 



50 CULTURE AND WAR 

rules, and sex slavery produces the evils of 
over-population. 

These disintegrating elements dominate, 
not on their own right, but through defec- 
tive social organizations that encourage 
them and restrain the counter traits of self- 
interest, self-conservation and sympathy. 
The picture of human nature that we call 
to mind should not be of a depraved nature 
controlled by hate and greed, nor of a spir- 
itual nature that knows only love and 
beauty. Both elements are present; the 
one or the other dominates as it is favored 
or repressed by the prevailing social organ- 
ization. We should not think of humanity 
moved by irresistible tendencies like those 
of physics; its forces should be pictured 
like those of biology, where dominant and 
recessive characters contend for the mas- 
tery, and the success of each group is de- 
termined by vironal conditions. Society is 
the determiner, and on its decisions de- 
pends the control or lack of control of 
given traits. That under .certain condi- 
tions a given trait does not appear is no evi- 
dence of its non-existence. The recessive 



CULTURE AND WAR 51 

traits of one society become the dominant 
motives of its successor. To social 
changes, therefore, we must look for the re- 
vival of seemingly lost traits, and not to the 
selection of individuals in whom some 
traces of desired characters appear. Eu- 
genics might give us a different man with 
other dominant and recessive traits; but to 
social changes we must look for the domi- 
nance of desired traits, and for the stability 
of those institutions that promote culture, 
cooperation, and general prosperity. 

To the degree that fear, greed, and sex 
create the dominant motives for social ac- 
tion, life, vigor and sympathy are re- 
pressed by the tribal, class and race antag- 
onisms which primitive passions evoke. 
Struggle is ever present, and in its train 
come the evils that arise in a divided so- 
ciety with its caste traditions. Servant and 
master, lord and retainer, capitalist and 
laborer, Jew and Gentile, man and woman, 
indicate the oppression and contrast that 
military struggle evokes. The crust of 
prejudice and tradition remains firm long 
after societies have become democratic and 



52 CULTURE AND WAR 

industrial. We are in a new regime, but 
are yet fettered by the feudal bonds that 
persist as the basis of character, morality 
and religion. Until these elements are 
clarified and harmonized with our in- 
dustrial life, no systematic advance can be 
made. 

To get a pure industrial life does not 
consist in the wiping out of the traits on 
which military rule depends, but in evok- 
ing traits a military state represses. This 
evoking force is culture. In the new 
world culture is not ideal dreaming. It is 
the motives leading to public service, a joy 
in others' welfare, an interest in what is to 
be instead of what has been. Culture is 
thus zeal, not enjoyment; self-subordina- 
tion, not self-dominance. The super-man 
is servant, not ruler; creator, not recipient. 
The change sought lies not in heredity, nor 
alone in the environment, but in the ac- 
quired traits aroused by education and per- 
sonal contact. The rigid customs, tradi- 
tions, and habits of thought brought over 
from the realm of struggle lose their def- 
inite cohesions and flow on harmoniously 



CULTURE AND WAR 53 

with the larger pulse in which they are in- 
corporated. Mobility is the goal of the 
change; vitality its means and culture its 
essence. The person, lost in the onward 
flow, gets his joy in a service that helps the 
super-pulse to grow. Life is measured by 
the super-life which self-yielding pro- 
motes. This new view, like the natural 
theology of our fathers, seeks to show that 
the ultimates of nature are benign. Na- 
ture is not "red-toothed" and hostile. 
Struggle and hardship are not the sponsors 
of progress, but its deadly foes. 

When the origin of degeneration and de- 
pravity in bad vironal conditions becomes 
plain, to discuss them again is only to re- 
peat what has already been said. Suffice 
it to say that degeneration is dissipation due 
to sudden changes in material wealth before 
culture has had time to create safeguards 
against the wrong use of income. It is not 
therefore intrinsically bad, but merely the 
first stage in a forward movement. The 
spendthrift comes first; culture follows; 
and then the missionary is needed to re- 
store and elevate. Does each epoch begin 



54 CULTURE AND WAR 

with the attainment of culture, to be fol- 
lowed by a development of religion, and 
then by the onset of dissipation and de- 
pravity? Or does each epoch start with 
new wealth, its misuse, and then right it- 
self through culture and religion? The 
one outlook is as doleful as the other is 
bright. If the latter view is correct per- 
sonal morality consists in keeping healthy, 
in self-preservation, in acquiring culture, 
in adjustment to nature, and in industrial 
effectiveness. True morality is not a 
means of salvation, nor has it the keys to 
some distant realm. Its test is in to-day's 
events and in to-morrow's adjustment. 

Health measured in these terms involves 
energy, and energy is the forerunner of 
imagination. If energy and imagination 
stand in a causal relation, the passage from 
the vironal to the spiritual world is easy 
and natural. Out of our sense concepts 
colored and transformed by the imagina- 
tion we gain motive and zeal; from them 
will is an outgrowth — not the will to resist 
and deny, but the will to do and achieve. 
When will becomes achievement it loses it- 



CULTURE AND WAR 55 

self in service. Thus the current of per- 
sonal life diverted from the world pulse re- 
turns to its source augmented and elevated. 
Each personal life is a purifying blend 
gaining impetus in its isolation, and return- 
ing to accelerate the massive pulse from 
which it came. The vironal yields its in- 
crease as it is transformed into life, and life 
becomes noble as its energy further aug- 
ments the world pulse. 

Using this method of correcting and 
completing German thought its fundamen- 
tal concept may be stated apart from its na- 
tional elements, and thus a world philos- 
ophy created. Life is a pulse, not an 
equilibrium. Culture is the unification 
and acceleration of this pulse. It is the 
means by which the individual life is 
brought in harmony with the world-pulse 
that is its source and end. At any given 
moment this pulse has a level tending to 
draw all below this level up to its standard. 
Dissipation, crime, vice, hate and antago- 
nism cannot be cured by acting on individ- 
ual cases, but by the acceleration of the 
world pulse that draws everything up to its 



56 CULTURE AND WAR 

level and reincorporates the cross-currents 
in the onflow towards harmony and life. 
We cannot save one individual except by 
losing others; but we can blend groups, 
classes, nations and races into larger units 
where interest and sympathy dominate over 
race antagonism. In the larger units thus 
created fewer people will be defective or 
dependent. Social salvation is measured 
by this relative growth of the normal and 
the increasing pressure they exert to lift 
their neighbors to their level. The prob- 
lems of this uplift are economic, vital and 
emotional. Trust the world-pulse and all 
is well. We need faith in budding life, 
not in a frozen creed — a new social philos- 
ophy with purer notions of God, culture 
and humanity. 

But these elements and this faith, impor- 
tant as they are, show less than the whole 
truth. Personal duty, personal responsi- 
bility, and personal integrity are quite as 
real in a live world as in a dead one. It is 
their office, not their essence, that changes. 
The duty and responsibility of the normal 
consists not in lifting the depraved to nor- 



CULTURE AND WAR 57 

mality, but in raising themselves to a super- 
normal plane. The world-pulse of to-mor- 
row can be directed only by a deeper 
insight into world processes than normal 
people possess. To be influential one must 
be ahead of others. The old morality was 
a morality of the low for the benefit of the 
high. The new morality frees the weak 
from restraint, thus letting them rise to 
their natural level. It imposes restraint on 
the good in proportion as they are better. 
The more surplus one creates the less is his 
own. The great bow before the humble, 
to whom comes the joy their betters earn. 
The term super-man is a new phrase, but 
the thought it conveys is the essence of the 
old thought. Nominally the old morality 
made all serve, but practically it led to the 
subordination of the weak to the strong. 
The great were practically free from the 
sacrifice and hardship imposed upon their 
neighbors. They lived for themselves, not 
for others. Reverse this attitude and the 
flow of goods that accompanies it creates a 
new morality. The lower classes are freed 
from restraint. They live to-day and have 



58 CULTURE AND WAR 

a return for each day's effort in the day's 
joy. They approximate the level that the 
world-pulse creates for them. They live 
longer and better by moving v^ith the w^orld 
flow. 

Recently a prominent bishop said that 
low wages was never the cause of a 
woman's fall. She could, if she would, re- 
sist temptation. Admitting this fact, what 
has she or society gained by her meager ex- 
istence and shortened life? Woman's first 
duty is the reproduction of the race. Soci- 
ety advances, not as she shows a power to 
resist the tendency for which she was cre- 
ated, but as it establishes conditions that 
permit her to become a mother. The ma- 
terial level necessary for health and child- 
bearing is the nation's responsibility. The 
producing of a superior child is her share. 
The moral energy of women should not be 
wasted to produce results that cultural 
means can attain. Men, in turn, are re- 
sponsible not for yielding to temptation, 
but for not growing to a full manhood. 
Society should hold us up to its level. We 
should then rise above it. We build char- 



CULTURE AND WAR 59 

acter not as we say "no," but as breaking 
with tradition we rise to higher levels, and 
through discovery and achievement create 
conditions elevating all humanity to a new 
plane. What personal effort gains is held 
through social co-operation. Society is at 
fault when its members fall, but the favored 
person is responsible if he, and through 
him society, does not rise. 

When we pass in conclusion from these 
social problems to questions of the individ- 
ual life there is little to be gained from 
German literature. Our own attitude, 
though defective, here affords a better basis 
for an advance. The reason is that our 
movements, wherever they are not based on 
traditional views, are religious, and there- 
fore broader than the German. We iso- 
late the Church from the State, while in 
Germany religion is absorbed in, or sub- 
ordinated to, the national life. They have 
nothing beyond the ideal of Germany, 
while we perceive the higher ideal even if 
creed and custom destroy its validity. 
Every one here nominally serves God, even 
though his effort and devotion are dedi- 



6o CULTURE AND WAR 

cated to the service of Baal. We increase 
these difficulties by isolating Church from 
State. Thinking of these institutions as 
two entities we try to serve both. The re- 
sult is a degradation of religion to the basis 
of an incidental interest, allowing patriot- 
ism to dominate over or suppress religious 
convictions. This isolation and this sub- 
ordination of the higher to the lower we 
must remove in order to gain the consist- 
ency of thought that a broader culture de- 
mands. Patriotism and religion are not 
different emotions, each with its basis in 
our inherited psychology. They are the 
same psychology working under different 
vironal conditions. Patriotism is spiritual 
emotion under conditions of struggle; reli- 
gion is these same personal emotions un- 
trammeled by fear, hate and race feud. A 
national regard for a tribal god is not reli- 
gion, but merely intensified patriotism; 
even if we may call these imperfect mani- 
festations of fervor religion, it is a dwarfed 
religion that resembles the possible ideal 
religion as little as a mountain shrub re- 
sembles the oak of the valley. 



s 



RU -l.tt 



CULTURE AND WAR 6i 

We must have a world religion or no re- 
ligion. The world-pulse must draw all to 
itself and realign the various regions in co- 
operative economic units, instead of race or 
language units. When this transformation 
comes our thought will be blended with, 
and not so antagonistic to, the Germans. 
We differ from them in race, language and 
history; we are the same in heredity and 
economic interest. Struggle and patriot- 
ism arise from our differences; religion, 
peace and prosperity from our similarities. 
The promised day comes when we refuse 
longer to put localized patriotism above an 
eager service of humanity. The world- 
pulse must win; we must yield and be ab- 
sorbed in its current. The higher nation 
is not the one which plants its battle flag on 
the ruins of its neighbor, but that which 
earns its neighbor's gratitude by service and 
good-will. Shall we yield when we might 
by arms become the victor? Yes. ^'He 
who would save his life must lose it" is as 
true of nations as of individuals. Salva- 
tion is worthless that comes only to you, to 
me, or to our race. Nations gain only as 



62 CULTURE AND WAR 

they lose themselves in the world-pulse that 
grows until it becomes God-like. When 
we leave the bounds of personality and na- 
tion all is peace, harmony and effectiveness. 
We will still grow but our growth enlarges 
not only ourselves but the universe as well. 
God's growth makes Him human; our 
growth makes men divine. Words lose 
their meaning when differences fade in the 
radiance of the joy that is to be. 



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